GIFT  OF 


The  Cook  County  Jail  Survey 


A  Summary  by 
FRANK  D.  LOOMIS 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Ai^. 

]^^  in  2007  with  funding  from 

Lt  Microsoft  Corporation 


THE  CHICAGO  COMMUNITY  TRUST 


THE  CHICAGO  COMMUNITY  TRUST 

10  South  La  Salle  Street,  Suite  1340. 
CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS 


COMMITTEE 


Clifford  W.  Barnes,  Chairman 

Trustee,    Estate  of   Simon   Reid 

E.  J.  Buffington 

President,  Illinois  Steel  Cd. 

Charles  S.  Cutting 

Former  Judge  of  the  Probate  Court 
Cook   County 

Abel  Davis 

Vice  President,  Chicago  Title  &  Trust  Co. 

Bernard  A.  Eckhart 

President,  B.  A.  Eckhart  Milling  Co. 


J.  Ogden  Armour 
Albert  W.  Harris 
Charles  H.  Markham 


ADVISORY  COUNCIL 

Orrin  N.  Carter 
Edmund   D.    Hurlbert 
John  J.  Mitchell 


Frederick  H.  Rawson  George  M.  Reynolds 


James  B.   Forgan 
Morton  D.   Hull 
James  A.   Patten 
John  G.  Shedd 


Frank  D.  Loomis,  Secretary 


BUREAU  OF  SURVEYS  AND  EXHIBITS 

MRS.  KENNETH  F.  RICH,  DIRECTOR 

ADVISORY  COMMITTEE 

Prof.  Robert  E.  Park  Miss  Edith  Abbott 

Joel  D.  Hunter  Miss  Edna  Foley 

Wilfred  S.  Reynolds  Alfred  C.  Meyer 

Dr.  A.  C.  Warner 


THE 

COOK  COUNTY  JAIL  SURVEY 

Made  on  request  of 
THE  BOARD  OF  COUNTY  COMMISSIONERS 

By 

THE  CHICAGO  COMMUNITY  TRUST 

'/ 

Summarized  by 

FRANK  D.  LOOMIS 

Secretary  of  the  Community  Trust 


Published  by 
THE  CHICAGO  COMMUNITY  TRUST 


Copyright.  1922,  by 
THE  CHICAGO  COMMUNITY  TRUST 


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FOREWORD 

The  complete  report  of  the  Cook  County  Jail 
Survey  is  a  lengthy  document,  by  no  means  unin- 
teresting, even  for  the  average  reader,  but  requir- 
ing more  time  than  the  person  busy  with  other 
matters  may  feel  he  or  she  can  give  it.  There  has 
been  demand  for  a  briefer  statement  of  the 
results  of  the  survey,  a  demand  which  this  Sum- 
mary will  attempt  to  satisfy. 

There  is  no  pretense  that  the  material  here 
presented  is  original.  The  writer  has  culled 
freely  from  the  entire  report,  taking  sentences  or 
parts  of  sentences,  as  best  seemed  to  suit  the  pur- 
pose in  view,  without  attempt  to  indicate  quota- 
tions unless  this  also  seemed  to  suit  the  purpose. 
The  material  of  the  report  has  been  often 
rearranged  and  of  course  very  much  condensed 
in  order  to  present  in  a  brief  document  a  fair 
review  of  facts  and  conclusions  which  in  the  origi- 
nal statements  required  many  pages.  For  the 
order  in  which  the  matter  is  here  presented  and 
for  the  fairness  of  the  review  the  writer  must 
accept  full  responsibility. 


o2o 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

FOREWORD 5 

PURPOSE  AND  METHOD  OF  THE  SURVEY  7 

THE  STAFF  OF  THE  SURVEY 9 

THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  COUNTY  JAIL 10 


PHYSICAL  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  THE  JAIL.  HEALTH  AND 

LIVING  CONDITIONS 11 


TEMPORARY    EXPEDIENTS    RECOMMENDED    FOR    DETEN- 
TION OF  MEN  AND  BOYS 14 

DETENTION  OF  THE  WOMAN  OFFENDER.... ...16 

STATISTICS  OF  CRIME  AND  DETENTION->HOW   LARGE   A 

JAIL  IS  NEEDED  IN  COOK  COUNTY 20 

CHARACTER  OF  THE  JAIL  POPULATION— WHAT  KIND  OF 

•    A  JAIL  IS  NEEDED  IN  COOK  COUNTY 23 

CONCLUSIONS  AND  RECOMMENDATIONS .25 


SUMMARY  OF  THE  COOK  COUNTY  JAIL  SURVEY 


PURPOSE  AND  METHOD  OF  THE  SURVEY 

For  many  years  there  has  been  agitation  for  a  new  jail 
in  Cook  County.  The  present  "new  jail,"  built  in  1895,  was 
scarcely  completed  before  it  was  condemned.  By  1910,  both 
the  *'old"  and  the  **new"  jails,  operated  as  one  unit,  had 
become  as  crowded  as  the  old  one  had  been  alone  before 
the  new  one  was  built  to  relieve  the  overcrowding,  and  the 
International  Prison  Congress,  meeting  here  in  that  year, 
with  representatives  of  wide  reputation  from  many  countries, 
condemned  the  whole  structure  as  one  of  the  worst  jails  to 
be  found  anywhere. 

Since  1914,  four  different  proposals  for  bond  issues  for  a 
new  jail  have  been  submitted  to  the  voters.  Each  proposal 
has  been  defeated — for  the  reason  principally,  it  is  believed, 
that  in  connection  with  these  various  proposals  no  definite 
plans  were  presented.  There  was  a  wide-spread  feeling  that  a 
new  deal  v/as  needed — that  it  would  be  useless  waste  of  money 
and  of  human  material  to  go  on  indefinitely  under  the  old  pol- 
icy of  building  ever  larger  jails,  to  be  promptly  filled  up  as 
soon  as  the  new  space  was  available.  Upon  the  failure  of  the 
fourth  bond-issue-proposal  in  the  Spring  of  1921,  the  demand 
for  a  careful  survey  of  the  situation  became  insistent,  and 
when  the  "Site  Committee,"  appointed  to  recommend  a  suit- 
able site  for  a  new  jail,  brought  to  the  County  Commissioners, 
in  January,  1922,  a  recommendation  that  the  Chicago  Com- 
munity Trust  be  first  asked  to  make  a  survey,  the  County 
Comfmissioners  promptly  and  unanimously  accepted  it. 

The  Community  Trust  is  a  charitable  foundation  which 
receives  gifts  in  trust  and  uses  the  income  for  philanthropic 
purposes.  It  is  a  non-partisan,  non-political  body,  operating 
in  the  broadest  sense  for  the  good  of  the  community  and 
well  fitted  to  conduct  an  impartial  study  of  any  com- 
munity enterprise.  The  formal  request  from  the  County 
Commissioners  was  promptly  and  carefully  considered  and 
after  some  inquiry  as  to  the  cost  and  the  possibilities  of  con- 
ducting an  adequate  study,  the  responsibility  was  accepted. 

The  Community  Trust  was  fortunate  in  being  able  to 
secure  as  director  of  the  survey,  Mr.  George  W.  Kirchwey, 

7 


L.L.D.,  for  many  years  Dean  of  the  Columbia  University 
Law  School,  warden,  for  a  time,  of  Sing  Sing  Prison,  New 
York,  and  internationally  known  as  a  practical  criminolo- 
gist. He  had  as  his  immediate  assistants  Mr.  Winthrop  D. 
Lane,  of  New  York,  an  experienced  investigator  of  jails,  maga- 
zine writer  and  author  of  a  number  of  books  on  the  subject; 
Mrs.  Kenneth  F.  Rich,  director  of  the  Community  Trust's 
"Bureau  of  Surveys"  and  a  specialist  in  protective  work 
for  girls ;  and  a  number  of  local  experts,  as  indicated  in  the 
accompanying  "Staflf  of  the  Survey,"  who  were  eminently 
qualified  to  investigate  the  various  subjects  assigned  them 
and  who  generously  donated  their  services. 

Work  was  begun  early  in  February  and  was  completed 
early  in  July,  the  formal  report  being  presented  to  the 
County  Commissioners  on  July  10th.  The  complete  report 
consisted  of  more  than  three  hundred  type-written  pages  and 
has  been  printed  by  the  County  Board,  both  in  its  volume 
of  regular  proceedings  and  in  separate  pamphlet  form  for 
local  distribution. 

The  cost  of  the  survey  to  the  Community  Trust  was 
approximately  eight  thousand  dollars — a  very  low  amount, 
as  the  cost  of  such  surveys  generally  go,  made  possible 
through  the  generous  help  received  from  many  sources. 


CONSIDER  THE  JAIL 

"This  survey,  undertaken  by  the  Chicago  Com- 
munity Trust  at  the  request  of  the  Board  of  Com- 
missioners of  Cook  County,  was  determined  in  its  plan 
and  scope  by  the  terms  of  the  resolution  authorizing  it. 

This  resolution,  adopted  by  the  Board  on  January 
16,  1922,  invited  **a  survey  of  the  entire  existing  situa- 
tion" involved  in  the  proposal  for  the  erection  of  a  new 
county  jail  and  specified,  as  factors  in  that  situation, 
"the  question  of  just  what  classes  of  prisoners  shall  be 
there  incarcerated,  along  with  the  problem  of  w^hether 
or  not  provision  that  is  not  now  afforded  can  be  made 
for  certain  classes  of  prisoners." 

It  was  to  be  a  new  kind  of  inquiry,  one  that  should 
go  to  the  root  of  the  jail  problem." 

— Introduction  to  Survey. 


STAFF  OF  THE  SURVEY 


George  W.  Kirchwey,  L.L.D.,  Director 


Physical  and   Living  Conditions  in  the  Jail 
MR.  WINTHROP  D.  LANE. 

Health  and  Medical  Conditions 
R.  B.  PREBLE,  M.  D.,  and  JOSEPH  L.  MILLER,  M.  D. 

Diet  and  Food  Conditions 
COMMITTEE  OF  CHICAGO  DIETETIC  ASSOCIATION 

Detention  of  the  Woman  Offender 
MRS.   KENNETH   F.   RICH 

Disposal  of  Surplus  Population 
MR.  JOHN  L.   WHITMAN 

Statistics  of   Crime  in   Chicago 
MISS   EDITH  ABBOTT 

Character  Study   of  Jail  Population 
MR.  A.  L.  BEELEY 

Study  of  Jail  Records 
MRS.   RICH   and   MR.   BEELEY 

ADVISORY  COMMITTEE  ON  JAIL  SURVEY 

Miss  Edith  Abbott  Prof.  E.  W.  Burgess  Judge  Harry  A.  Olson 

Dr.  Herman  M.  Adler  Henry  Barrett  Chamberlin   Judge  Hugo  Pam 

Miss  Jessie  F.  Binford  Chas.  E.  Merriam  Prof.  Robert  E.  Park 

Supt.  John  L.  Whitman 
Prcyf.   Robt.   H.   Gault    (Chmn.) 

ADVISORY  COMMITTEE  ON  WOMAN  OFFENDER 

Miss   Edith  Abbott  Miss  Jessie  F.  Binford  Mrs.  Joseph  S.  Meyer 

Miss  Lillian  Adler  Miss  Harriet  J.  Comstock     Miss  Harriet  Vittum 

Mrs.  Lynn  A.  Williams 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  COUNTY  JAIL 

"The  Cook  County  Jail  is  not  a  place  of  punishment.  It 
is  a  place  of  detention  for  persons,  innocent  and  guilty,  who 
are  under  suspicion  of  having  committed  criminal  offenses 
and  who  are  unable  to  secure  bail.  Whatever  the  practice 
may  be,  that,  at  least,  is  the  theory.  This  is  the  significant 
fact  which  furnishes  the  clue  to  any  study  of  the  jail 
prdblem." 

In  actual  practice.  Dr.  Kirchwey  finds  in  the  introduction 
to  the  survey,  the  Cook  County  Jail  is  used  principally  only 
as  a  place  of  detention.  But  it  "has  just  enough  convicted 
offenders  to  keep  alive  the  evil  tradition  that  a  jail  is  a  place 
of  punishment.  Being  a  place  of  punishment  for  a  few,  it 
becomes  and  remains  a  place  of  punishment  for  all,  irrespec- 
tive of  age,  or  guilt,  or  breeding,  or  character."  The  state 
of  public  opinion  with  respect  to  the  jail  population  is  one 
of  the  greatest  jail  problems. 

To  this  problem  of  the  popular  misconception  of  the  pur- 
pose of  a  jail  is  added  a  problem  of  overcrowding  in  the 
Cook  County  Jail  so  serious  as  to  intensify  all  the  evils  of 
the  common  jail  and  add  new  and  more  menacing  ones.  The 
"old  jail,"  erected  in  1874,  had  individual  cells  for  136  per- 
sons. The  "new  jail"  added  180  cells.  "It  is  fashionable," 
Dr.  Kirchwey  says,  "to  measure  the  normal  capacity  of  the 
jail  by  multiplying  the  number  of  cells  by  two;  but  this  is 
absurd.  No  sane  person  builds  cells  for  two  persons.  There 
are  reasons  for  this  which  need  not  be  gone  into  here  but 
which  every  jail  builder  knows. 

"The  jail  population  in  the  Cook  County  Jail  in  1921, 
reached  the  maximum  of  1013  inmates  on  a  single  day.  There 
were  ten  days  when  the  population  was  1,000  and  upwards; 
72  days  when  the  population  went  above  950;  112  days 
when  it  exceeded  900;  195  days  when  it  stood  above  850; 
293  days  when  it  numbered  upwards  of  750;  and  359  days 
when  it  went  above  700."  For  a  large  part  of  the  year  many 
of  the  cells  had  to  be  occupied  by  five  men.  Three  and  four 
in  a  cell  is  common. 

The  statistics  of  daily  population  do  not  begin  to  measure 
the  extent  of  the  evil  which  results  from  these  conditions  of 
overcrowding.  In  the  year  1921,  there  were  10,642  men 
and  women,  boys  and  girls  who  were  subjected  to  these 
degrading  conditions  for  varying  periods  of  weeks  or  months. 

10 


PHYSICAL  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  THE  JAIL, 
HEALTH  AND  LIVING  CONDITIONS. 

"The  Cook  County  Jail,"  Mr.  Lane  says,  "is  an  over- 
crowded, insanitary,  disease-breeding  place."  Into  its  cells 
ten  feet  long,  five  feet  wide  and  seven  and  a  half  feet  high, 
providing  air-space  a  third  less  than  is  considered  sufficient 
for  one  human  being,  entirely  closed  on  three  sides  and  top 
and  bottom,  with  one  end  opening  onto  a  dimly-lighted, 
poorly  ventilated  corridor — into  these  are  crowed  two,  three, 
four  and  sometimes  five  persons  who  must  spend  twenty 
hours  a  day  there  for  a  period  of  probably  four  months. 
Exercise  is  allowed  four  hours  a  day  in  "bull-pens,"  also 
dimly  lighted,  poorly  ventilated,  and  overcrowded.     During 

the  exercise  periods  "the  inmates  as  they  stand  and  circulate 
about  the  bull-pen  spit  on  the  floor  until  it  becomes  too  filthy 
to  bear  description.  The  congestion  is  so  great  that  a  man 
can  hardly  move  without  touching  his  neighbor.  Exercise 
worthy  of  the  name  is  utterly  impossible." 

The  cell  is  the  man's  living  room,  dining  room  and  bed- 
room. The  beds  are  slung  from  the  side  of  the  wall,  like 
bunks,  protruding  out  into  the  cell  during  the  daytime  and 
taking  up  half  of  the  space.  Here  and  there  about  the  cell, 
string  has  been  strung  up  as  a  place  for  drying  towels, 
shirts  and  other  bits  of  clothing  which  the  men  have  washed 
in  the  cell.  Men  lie  on  the  bed,  read,  talk,  write  letters 
crouched  on  the  lower  bunk,  with  their  shoulders  hunched 
forward  to  escape  the  upper  bunk,  and  spend  the  time  as 
best  they  can.  No  useful  activity  or  work  is  permitted  in 
the  cells. 

Food  for  Thought 

Food  is  passed  into  the  men  through  slits  in  the  bars. 
The  food  served  is  heavy,  unappetizing  and  often  indigestible. 
Breakfast  consists  solely  of  a  large  cup  of  coffee  and  bread 
or  a  single  roll  or  "dufifer."  The  mid-day  meal,  which  follows 
a  planned  weekly  rotation:  That  is,  the  same  food  is  served 
every  Monday,  the  same  every  Tuesday,  etc.,  consists  prin- 
cipally of  stews  or  corned-beef  and  cabbage  or  hash  or  fish, 
white  beans,  potatoes  or  carrots.  Supper  consists  either  of 
a  kind  of  soup  or  of  coffee  and  bread.  No  sugar,  butter  or 
butter  substitutes  are  served.  Such  food,  in  the  opinion  of 
the  committee  of  the  Chicago  Dietetic  Association,  does  not 
furnish  a  balanced  diet.  It  lacks  fat,  it  lacks  sugar,  it  lacks 
vitamines.  It  is  much  too  heavy  a  diet  for  persons  having 
so  little  opportunity  for  physical  exercise,  andi  produces 
constant  digestive  troubles. 

11 


There  is  an  enormous  waste  of  this  jail  food,  it  being 
estimated  that  between  two  and  three  tons  every  week  are 
thrown  into  the  garbage,  which  is  given  to  some  concern 
that  carts  it  away  and  uses  it. 

Private  Concessions 

The  "Jail  Store,"  operating  under  a  private  concession, 
does  a  thriving  business,  however.  This  "store"  is  apparently 
operated  at  very  small  cost,  most  of  the  help  being  furnished 
by  jail  inmates  free,  but  prices  charged  the  prisoners  are 
high.  It  is  estimated  that  many  of  the  prisoners  spend  from 
$3.00  to  $6.00  a  week  each  for  extras  from  the  store.  Some 
food  is  also  brought  in  by  friends  from  the  outside. 

An  outside  barber  has  a  concession  in  the  jail.  He  has 
three  chairs  and  he  and  his  assistants  are  busy  nearly  every 
morning;  the  charge  for  a  shave  is  fifteen  cents,  for  a  hair- 
cut thirty-five;  his  expenses  are  small.  What  the  barber 
pays  for  his  concession  is  not  known. 

Among  the  sixty-one  guards  at  the  jail  there  are  men  of 
various  sorts,  some  who  seem  well  equipped  to  perform 
their  duties  intelligently  and  some  who  are  not.  The  method 
of  appointing  guards  does  not  seem  well  calculated  to  secure 
good  men.  They  are  said  to  be  appointed  by  the  sheriflF 
after  nominations  have  been  made  to  him  by  ward  committee- 
men.    The  pay  of  guards  at  present  is  $149.00  a  month. 

Health  Conditions  are  Such 

Health  conditions  in  the  jail  are  such  that  the  special 
committee  of  physicians,  consisting  of  Doctor  R.  B.  Preble 
and  Doctor  Joseph  L.  Miller,  after  a  careful  examination, 
declare  "that  the  county  authorities  have  conspicuously 
failed  to  perform  their  duty."  "The  foul  air  resulting  from 
overcrowding  of  the  poorly  ventilated  cells  and  bull-pens ; 
the  all  but  complete  lack  of  physical  exercise  and  recreation 
for  weeks  and  months  at  a  stretch ;  the  absence  of  occupa- 
tion for  mind  and  body  and  the  inevitable  contagion  result- 
ing from  such  close  contact  cannot  but  result  in  an  almost 
universal  deterioration  of  vitality  and  an  impairment  of 
physical  health." 

The  physical  examination  of  newly  received  prisoners  is 
conducted  in  a  very  perfunctory  manner.  On  one  occasion 
recently,  when  the  method  of  entrance  examination  was  being 
observed  by  a  member  of  the  survey  stafif,  forty-two  men 
were  examined  by  a  single  physician  in  thirteen  minutes, 
part  of  this  time  being  consumed  by  the  examiner  in  filling 

12 


out  the  prisoners'  record  cards.  On  the  basis  of  this  brief 
examination,  however,  the  examiner  filled  out  each  man's 
card  for  scabies,  syphilis,  gonorrhea,  tuberculosis,  condition 
of  the  heart,  condition  of  the  lungs  and  general  physical 
condition.  No  doubt  many  cases  of  active  pulmonary  tuber- 
culosis or  other  infectious  diseases  are  placed  in  cells  with 
healthy  prisoners.  There  is  no  adequate  provision  for  fumi- 
gating or  sterilizing  the  clothing  to  destroy  vermin  or  disease- 
producing  germs.  The  sheets  on  the  cots  of  the  receiving 
wing  of  the  jail  are  changed  only  once  a  week  so  that  the 
same  sheets  may  be  used  five  or  six  times  by  a  succession  of 
incoming   prisoners. 

"Hospital  B" 

No  provision  is  made  for  re-examination  of  prisoners. 
Those  with  minor  complaints  are  given  pills  or  powders 
by  a  prisoner  assigned  to  the  dispensary.  Serious  cases  of 
illness  are  treated  by  the  prison  physician  in  the  "hospital," 
usually  ''Hospital  B" — a  room  approximtely  forty  by  twelve 
feet,  constructed  by  walling  oi¥  a  part  of  one  of  the  bull- 
pens.  "The  ceiling  is  low.  There  is  no  outside  light.  The 
room  is  damp,  most  uncomfortable  and  unsanitary."  There 
is  no  provision  for  the  isolation  of  contagious  diseases  nor 
for  the  care  of  suspected  mental  cases.  Prisoners  with 
apparent  mental  disorders,  who  show  a  tendency  to  be  violent, 
are  confined  in  the  ordinary  cells  of  the  jail  alone.  Drug 
addiction  armong  the  inmates   is  very  common. 


HOW  TEN  THOUSAND  PRISONERS  LIVE  AND 
LEARN  IN  THE  COOK  COUNTY  JAIL 

'They  live  in  idleness  at  the  expense  of  the  tax- 
payer. 

They  learn  vice,   immorality  and  crime. 

They  become  educated  in  criminal  ways. 

They  degenerate  both  physically  and  morally. 

It  is  most  important  that  we  deal  rightly  with  jail 
prisoners  if  we  would  lessen  rather  than  increase  the 
number  of  offenders.** 

— Amos  W.  Butler, 
Secretary  Board  of  State  Charities,  Indiana. 


There  is  little  attempt  at  the  grouping  or  classification 
of  prisoners  according  to  their  individual  needs.  "The  first 
offender  is  confined  with  the  man  or  woman  whose  prison 

13 


sentences  outrun  memory  in  number.  The  uneducated  are 
housed  with  the  graduates  of  professional  and  technical 
schools.  Painters,  steam-fitters,  photographers  and  railway 
conductors  are  confined  with  physicians,  restaurant-keepers, 
detectives,  clerks  and  telegraph  operators.  Men  with  the 
broken  accent  of  Italy  and  Turkey  occupy  cells  side  by  side 
with  native-born,  English-speaking  Americans.  The  Con- 
fucian even  finds  himself  open  to  argument  with  the  Baptist 
and  the  Christian-Scientist."  Colored  prisoners  are  kept 
together  as,  to  some  extent,  are  younger  oflFenders  also, 
and  there  is  an  attempted  segregation  of  drug  addicts  and 
venereal  cases. 

TEMPORARY    EXPEDIENTS    RECOMMENDED    FOR 
DETENTION  OF  MEN  AND  BOYS 

In  the  course  of  the  survey  various  recommendations  are 
made  for  the  improvement  of  conditions  in  the  present  Jail. 
The  committee  of  dietitians,  for  instance,  present  in  detail 
a  menu  which  would  be  vastly  more  heathful  for  prisoners 
than  the  present  unbalanced  and  heavy  diet  and  would  not 
cost  more  money.  The  Doctors  offer  suggestions  for  improve- 
ment of  sanitation  and  the  medical  service  which  would  cost 
more  money  in  the  jail,  but  would  probably  not  cost  the 
community  more  in  the  long  run,  since,  if  poor  people  became 
diseased  in  the  jail,  the  County  will  have  to  care  for  many 
of  them  and  their  dependents  later  in  the  same  or  other 
institutions —  to  say  nothing  of  humanitarian  reasons.  They 
urge  more  careful  examination  of  prisoners  upon  entrance 
to  the  Jail;  thorough  disinfection  of  clothing;  that  clean 
underclothing  be  furnished  following  the  initial  bath;  that 
clean  sheets  be  provided  for  each  new  prisoner;  that 
blankets  he  cleaned  and  disinfected  at  least  once  a  month ; 
and  that  there  should  be  systematic  extermination  of  the 
vermin  in  the  cells. 

Reasonable  Medical  Care 

The  doctors  further  recommend  immediate  abandonment 
of  the  present  wretched  hospital  walled-off  in  one  of  the 
bull-pens  and  the  provision  of  more  suitable  quarters  in 
other  parts  of  the  jail  building.  Regular  provision  should 
be  made  for  contagious  and  mental  cases.  They  advocate 
also  the  employment  of  a  full-time  physician,  with  one  or 
more  assistants,  who  will  devote  their  entire  time  to  looking 
after  the  inmates  of  the  jail;  and  the  provision  of  a  trained 
pharmacist  to  replace  the  trusty  who  now  dispenses  pills 
and  other  drugs.  The  interesting  and  practical  suggestion 
is    further    made    that    the    Chicago    Institute    of    Medicine 

14 


should  be  authorized  to  appoint  a  committee  of  their  physi- 
cians who  will  make  quarterly  inspection  of  the  jail  and  make 
a  written  report  to  the  proper  authorities.  A  similar  sug- 
gestion is  that  a  committee  of  dietitians  should  be  appointed 
to  make  periodic  examination  of  food  conditions  and  make 
recommendatons    in    regard   to   the   prisoners'    diet. 

Many  of  these  recommendations  will  be  of  value,  of  course, 
not  only  in  the  present,  but  in  the  proposed  new  jail  as 
well ;  or  would  prove  helpful  to  persons  responsible  for 
or  interested  in  jails  everywhere. 

Mr.  Lane  makes  recommendations  for  improvements  in 
daily  routine  of  jail  life,  to  make  possible  more  physical 
exercise  and  recreation ;  opportunity  for  work,  more  pro- 
vision for  education;  and  the  serving  of  food  on  temporary 
tables  in  the  open  bull-pens  rather  than  in  the  cells.  Dr. 
Kirchwey  advocates  the  removal  of  all  persons  serving  sen- 
tence to  the  workhouse,  a  plan  which  it  is  said  could  easily 
be  made  effective  and  permanent  by  the  judges  of  the  crim- 
inal court,  so  that  the  jail  should  be  used  only  for  detention 
of  persons  awaiting  trial.  But  probably  the  most  important 
of  all  the  recommendations  looking  to  improvement  in  admin- 
istration of  the  present  system  is  that  which  proposes  removal 
of  the  boys  from  the  jail  to  a  separate  institution. 

Separate  Detention  for  Boys 

The  recommendation  for  separate  detention  of  boys 
accused  of  crime  is  originally  made  in  the  report  of  Mr.  John 
L.  Whitman  on  the  Disposal  of  the  Surplus  Population  of 
the  jail.  It  is  believed  to  be  so  important  that  it  is  adopted 
as  one  of  the  major  and  permanent  recommendations  of  the 
entire  survey. 

The  permanent  features  of  the  recommendation  will  be 
discussed  later.  The  temporary  recommendation  arose  from 
the  belief  that  whatever  plans  for  a  new  jail  may  be  deter- 
mined upon,  it  will  be  some  years  before  the  new  structure  will 
actually  be  built  ready  for  use  and  that  the  wretched  and 
demoralizing  conditions  in  the  present  institution  ought 
not  to  be  permitted  a  moment  longer  than  necessary.  Some- 
thing ought  to  be  done  at  once  to  relieve  the  situation.  Since 
boys  under  twenty-one  years  of  age  constitute  nearly  one- 
fifth  of  the  jail  population ;  since  boys  of  such  impressionable 
age  are  most  injuriously  affected  by  the  degrading  influences 
of  such  surroundings;  since  the  boys,  of  all  the  groups, 
would  be  most  likely  to  improve  in  a  more  healthy  and  help- 
ful environment,  it  is  recommended  that  these  boys  be 
removed  as  soon  as  possible  from  the  County  Jail  and  be 

15 


housed  in  the  Old  John  Worthy  School  Building,  located  on 
one  corner  of  the  grounds  of  the  city  Workhouse  at  Cali- 
fornia Boulevard  and  Twenty-Sixth  Street.  This  building,, 
of  brick  and  stone  construction,  has  for  some  years  been  out 
of  use,  but  is  in  a  good  state  of  preservation,  and  at  compara- 
tively small  expense  could  easily  be  adapted  to  the  temporary 
use  here  proposed.  Originally  built  for  use  as  a  reformatory 
for  some  four-hundred  (400)  juvenile  delinquents,  there  is 
ample  space  for  dormitories  for  the  two-hundred  or  more 
boys  now  kept  in  the  jail,  with  abundant  room  for  kitchen, 
mess-hall,  hospital,  school-room,  exercise  room  and  other 
facilities.  The  structure  has  the  further  advantage  of  hav- 
ing an  exercise  yard  lying  between  one  side  of  the  building 
and  the  workhouse  wall. 

The  selection  oi  boys  who  could  safely  be  confined  under 
the  less  severe  and  restricted  conditions  of  this  temporary 
institution  is  not  proposed  to  be  based  on  age  alone.  It  would 
be  a  privilege  to  be  determined  somewhat  on  general  char- 
acter and  good  behavior. 

DETENTION  OF  THE  WOMAN  OFFENDER 

Women  in  Cook  County  accused  of  crime  spend  the  period 
awaiting  trial,  if  they  cannot  secure  bail,  in  the  Women's 
Quarters  of  the  County  Jail  or  in  the  various  police  lock-ups 
scattered  over  the  City.  The  detention  of  women  offenders, 
whether  in  jail  or  lock-ups,  has  been  treated  in  the  survey  as 
one  problem.  The  number  requiring  detention  at  any  one 
time,  even  in  a  city  the  size  of  Chicago,  is  not  large,  and  in 
several  cities  the  problem  is  so  handled. 

The  women's  section  in  the  jail  is  somewhat  more  habitable 
than  the  quarters  occupied  by  men  and  boys,  and  much 
smaller.  There  are  thirty-six  cells,  some  of  which  are  occu- 
pied by  two  women.  The  cells  are  about  the  same  size  as 
the  men's  cells,  and  facilities  for  good  ventilation  are  like- 
wise lacking.  There  are  two  *'bull-pens,"  one  of  which  is 
used  for  reading  and  recreation,  the  other  for  a  dining  room. 
The  hospital  is  reasonably  light  and  airy,  but  lacks  toilet 
facilities.  In  decided  contrast  with  the  men's  quarters,  the 
cells  are  clean,  the  floors  are  kept  scrubbed  and  everything 
presents  a  spotless  appearance. 

Women  in  Police  Stations 

Women's  quarters  in  the  various  Police  Stations  are  not 
so  distinguished,  although  there  has  been  some  recent  improve- 
ment and  the  five  stations  now  used  for  women  are  not  the 
worst  in  the  City. 

16 


Harrison  St.  Annex  of  the  South  Clark  St.  Station,  625  S. 
Clark  St.;  Hyde  Park  Station,  5223  Lake  Park  Avenue; 
Stock  Yards  Station,  4726  S.  Halstead  St.;  South  Chicago 
Station,  2938  E.  89th  St.;  West  Chicago  Ave.  Station,  731 
N.  Racine  Ave, 

In  all  of  these  lock-ups,  the  quarters  set  apart  for  w^omen 
are  mere  adjuncts  to  the  detention  equipment  for  men.  Their 
total  capacity  is  about  fifty  wom^n.  The  quarters  are  pre* 
sided  over  by  thirty-four  (34)  matrons,  who  work  on  shifts. 
There  are  no  facilities  for  preparing  meals.  The  regular 
fare  of  sausage,  bread  and  black  coffee  is  brought  in  from 
outside.     There  is  no  provision  for  occupation  or  recreation. 

The  total  capacity  of  the  women's  quarters  in  all  of  the 
Police  Stations  and  in  the  County  Jail  is  about  one-hundred 
(100),  allowing  fifty  as  the  capacity  in  the  jail.  The  number 
actually  held  at  any  one  time  is  not  so  large,  however,  the 
population  in  the  jail  usually  ranging  from  25  to  35.  Some 
of  these  are  serving  sentences,  and  the  survey  in  every  case 
advocates  that  all  persons  serving  sentences  should  be  con- 
fined in  penal  institutions — that  the  jail  should  never  be 
used  as  a  place  of  punishment  but  only  for  purposes  of  deten- 
tion. If  women  serving  sentences  were  eliminated  from  the 
jail,  it  is  believed  that  a  capacity  of  thirty  in  the  women's 
quarters  would  be  sufficient.  This,  together  with  the  capac- 
ity of  fifty  in  the  police  stations,  would  give  a  total  capacity 
of  eighty,  which  is  believed  to  be  am^le  for  women's  deten- 
tion-quarters in  Chicago  and  Cook  County  for  many  years  to 
come.  A  protest  is  urged  against  the  furnishing  of  larger 
quarters  than  necessary.  Rather,  it  is  believed  that  possible 
improvements  in  criminal  procedure  and  administration  of 
justice  will  considerably  reduce  the  amount  of  space  required. 
"It  would  manifestly  be  folly  to  build  and  maintain  women's 
detention  quarters  large  enough  to  make  the  law's  delays 
convenient." 

Young  Girls  from  the  Country 

Statistics  showing  the  ages  of  women  in  jails  and  lock- 
ups indicate,  as  is  the  case  among  the  men,  that  many  of 
them  are  young  people.  Some  are  even  below  the  juvenile 
court  age  (18  years),  and  the  number  under  21,  held  in  the 
jail  ranges  from  11%  to  19%  of  the  total,  while  the  propor* 
tion  under  30  years  of  age  ranges  from  55%  to  65%.  Many 
of  these  young  women,  it  is  stated,  are  from  the  country. 
The  significant  fact  is  reported  that  from  sixty  to  ninety 
per  cent  of  cases  brought  in  the  Morals  Court  are  those  of 
girls  coming  from   small   adjacent  towns   or  rural  districts. 

17 


First  and  Petty  Offenders 

The  type  of  offenses  charged  gives  added  weight  to  an 
argument  for  careful  classification  of  women  held  in  deten- 
tion. Even  among  those  who  are  committed  to  the  County 
Jail  are  a  large  number  of  girls  held  for^ "Violation  of  Muni- 
cipal Code" — presumably  many  of  them  petty  mis-deeds 
The  most  frequent  felony  charge  is  larceny ;  but  of  all  women 
arrested  in  Chicago  in  1920,  1266  were  on  felony  charges, 
and  6201  were  on  charges  classed  as  misdemeanors;  48% 
of  the  latter  were  charged  with  disorderdy  conduct.  Of 
course  there  are  always  some  among  those  held  who  are 
charged  with  the  more  serious  offenses  and  a  considerable 
proportion  (running  as  high  as  33%  of  those  held  in  the 
jail)  who  admit  having  been  arrested  before — two,  three  or 
more  times.  "A  woman  charged  with  adultery  or  the  con- 
fidence game,  for  instance,  'arrested  for  the  fourth  time; 
or  alleged  guilty  of  assault  with  a  deadly  weapon  or  of 
street-walking  arrested  for  the  fifth  time;  or  charged  with 
larceny  or  robbery,  arrested  six  or  more  times — these  women, 
experienced  in  transgression,  should  clearly  not  be  detained 
in  the  same  quarters  with  women  and  girls  for  whom  dis- 
orderly conduct,  contempt  of  court  or  debt  may  be  their  first 
offenses,  or  with  those  whose  only  offense,  as  entered  in 
jail  words,  is  "safe-keeping." 

The  diseased  condition  of  many  of  the  women  points  to 
the  necessity  not  only  of  classification  and  segregation ;  but 
also  of  adequate  medical  and  hospital  facilities.  These  should 
be  provided  at  the  place  of  detention,  except  for  those  so 
seriously  ill  as  to  require  bed-side  care. 

Separate  Detention  for  Women 

After  its  careful  study  of  the  situation  with  regard  to  the 
custody  of  women  accused  of  crime,  the  survey  adopts  and 
approves  most  heartily  a  measure  which  has  been  urged  for 
several  years  by  women's  clubs  of  Chicago,  namely,  the 
establishment  of  a  separate  Detention  Home  for  Women,  in 
which  should  be  held  all  women  unable  to  secure  bail  and 
awaiting  trial,  whether  in  the  Municipal  or  the  County 
Courts.  Such  a  detention  home  should  have  ample  provision 
for  segregation  of  the  various  classes  of  inmates,  including 
medical  and  hospital  facilities,  and  shoujd  be  under  the  imme- 
diate administration  of  women  alone,  with  a  woman  super- 
intendent, having  rank  equal  to  that  of  Police  Captain,  an 
assistant  superintendent  with  rank  of  Police  Lieutenant,  and  a 
staff  of  fifteen  matrons.  Much  of  the  work  of  the  institu- 
tion should  be  done  by  the  inmates.     The  building  should 

18 


contain  a  laboratory  for  psychopathic  and  psychiatric 
examination  and  provision  should  be  made  for  education, 
particularly  in  various  vocations,  and  for  recreation. 

The  survey  further  recommends  that  the  present  Morals' 
Court,  a  branch  of  the  Municipal  Court,  be  reorganized  into  a 
Woman's  Court,  a  change  which  could  easily  be  effected, 
and  that  this  court  be  located  in  the  Woman's  Detention 
Home.  Various  recommendations  in  connection  with  the 
administration  of  the  court  are  proposed,  especially  the  aboli- 
tion of  fines  as  punshment  for  sex  offenders ;  and  the  revision 
and  improvement  of  the  Adult  Probation  Law.  It  is  believed 
that  two  court  rooms  would  prove  adequate  to  handle  all 
the  business  of  the  court.  These  rooms  should  be  small  in 
size,  to  accommodate  only  those  persons  directly  concerned 
in  the  particular  case  at  issue.  The  building  should  also 
furnish  headquarters  for  women  police,  for  women  probation 
officers  and  space  for  State  and  City  Attorneys  who  appear 
at  court  hearings. 

With  reference  to  location  of  the  Central  Detention  Home 
for  Women,  the  use  of  the  present  Juvenile  Detention  Home 
on  Gilpin  Place  near  Halsted  Street  is  suggested.  Plans  are 
presented  for  adaptation  of  this  building  to  the  use  proposed. 
It  is  believed  that  the  building  can  at  relatively  small  expense 
be  made  to  furnish  all  the  accommodations  needed  and  that 
it  will  be  adequate  for  the  purpose  for  many  years  to  come. 


CHICAGO  WILL 

"IndiflFerence  of  the  public  to  jail  conditions  is  re- 
sponsible for  Chicago's  jail  being  forty  years  behind 
the  times.  But  at  last  the  scientific  method  which  has 
revolutionized  our  hospitals  and  asylums  is  meiking 
inroads  in  our  prisons,  and  Chicago  will  doubtless  join 
in  the  procession.** 

— ^Amos  W.  Butler. 


19 


STATISTICS  OF  CRIME  AND  DETENTION- 
HOW  LARGE  A  JAIL  IS  NEEDED  IN  COOK  COUNTY? 

"In  discussing  statistics  relating  to  crime,"  writes  Miss 
Edith  Abbott  in  her  report,  "it  is  important  to  understand 
that  the  vast  majority  of  arrests  are  arrests  of  petty  offenders. 
*  *  The  police,  the  courts  and  all  the  criminal  machinery  that 
go  with  the  enforcing  the  sanctions  of  the  law  are  largely  for 
the  punishment  of  small  offenses." 

Statistics  compiled  from  annual  reports  of  the  Police 
Department  since  1910,  indicate  in  recent  years  an  increase 
in  the  number  of  arrests  for  the  more  serious  offenses  (fel- 
onies) with  a  generally  corresponding  decrease  in  arrests  for 
misdemeanors.  But  other  statistics  show  a  marked  decrease 
in  the  number  of  convictions  in  proportion  to  the  popula- 
tion of  the  city  and  the  questfon  is  raised  "Are  the  police 
making  arrests  unnecessarily?"  Further  investigation  reveals 
that  only  34  out  of  every  hundred  charges  disposed  of  in 
1921,  resulted  in  conviction  and  in  1920,  the  porportion  of 
convictions  was  only  32  out  of  every  hundred.  These  figures 
relate  to  the  total  number  of  charges  or  arrests  by  the  police. 
Figures  in  regard  to  the  number  of  charges  for  felonies  alone 
and  the  number  of  convictions  show  that  in  1921,  less  than 
one-fourth  of  those  charged  with  felonies  were  convicted. 
"Thus  out  of  every  100  persons  who  are  arrested  for  serious 
offenses,  many  of  them  held  to  the  Grand  Jury  and  degraded 
and  poisoned  by  a  period  of  detention  in  the  county  jail,  75 
are  not  convicted." 

Chicago  25%,  London  75%  Efficient 

Turning,  for  comparison,  to  statistics  of  arrests  and  convic- 
tions in  London,  England  and  in  Canada,  Miss  Abbott  finds 
"that  in  London  in  1919,  76  per  cent  of  the  persons  tried 
for  indictable  offenses  in  the  higher  criminal  courts  were  con- 
victed and  24  per  cent  were  discharged.  In  the  same  year  in 
Chicago  29  per  cent  of  the  felony  cases  disposed  of  resulted 
in  convictions  and  71  per  cent  were  discharged."  In  Canada 
in  two  successive  years,  1919  and  1920,  "there  were  for  indic- 
table offenses,  approximiately  80  per  cent  of  convictions  and 
20  per  cent  of  acquittals,  while  in  Chicago  in  the  same  time 
there  were  approximately  71  per  of  dismissals  or  acquittals 
and  only  28  or  29  per  cent  of  convictions." 

"These  statistics,"  Miss  Abbott  concludes,  "present  a  chal- 
lenge to  the  thoughtful  citizen.  Has  the  administration 
of  criminal  justice  in  Chicago  become  so  inefficient  or  cor- 
rupt or  both  that  out  of  every  hundred  felony  charges,  only 

20 


28  or  29  result  in  convictions  whereas  in  the  courts  of  Can- 
ada or  in  England  approximately  75  or  80  out  of  every  hun- 
dred persons  tried  for  similar  offenses  are  found  guilty.  *  *  A 
high  percentage  of  discharges  or  acquittals  means  one  of  two 
things :  Either  innocent  people  are  being  arrested  who  must 
be  discharged  in  court  or  who  cannot  even  be  prosecuted 
because  there  is  insufficient  evidence  against  them ;  or  per- 
sons who  are  guilty  are  discharged  because  of  inefficient, 
incompetent  or  corrupt  admtinistration  of  the  machinery  of 
criminal  justice.  In  either  case,  a  crime-producing  situation 
exists.  For  innocent  men  are  made  criminals  through  asso- 
ciating with  criminals  in  police  stations  and  jails  and  courts. 
And  in  the  other  case,  the  uncertainty  of  punishment,  the 
large  chances  of  escape  from  conviction  tempt  men  to  adopt 
or  continue  criminal  careers." 

The  Law's  Delays 

While  Miss  Abbott's  report  deals  with  the  uncertainties 
of  justice — the  large  number  of  arrests  (125,000  a  year)  and 
the  relatively  small  number  of  convictions — statistics  col- 
lected under  direction  of  Mrs.  Rich  reveal  its  delays.  The 
latter  relate  only  to  persons  held  in  the  jail,  of  whom  therr 
are  more  than  10,000  a  year.  Even  among  these  it  is  found 
that  at  least  a  third,  after  having  run  the  gamut  of  the  police 
lock-ups,  the  municipal  courts,  a  period  probably  of  two  or 
three  weeks  in  jail  awaiting  action  of  the  Grand  Jury,  the 
indictment  by  the  Grand  Jury  (for  most  of  them),  and  period 
of  additional  detention  ranging  from  a  few  weeks  to  a  year 
or  more,  will  eventually  be  released.  A  small  proportion  of 
these  will  have  been  released  on  refusal  of  the  Grand  Jury  to 
indict;  a  very  considerable  proportion,  often  more  than  one- 
half  of  the  entire  number  released,  will  be  discharged  without 
trial ;  and  of  all  those  finally  brought  to  trial,  probably  more 
than  10%  (or  a  third  of  those  released)  will  be  acquitted. 
In  this  situation.  Dr.  Kirchwey  questions  the  efficiency  not 
only  of  the  trial  Jury,  which  often  is  blamed,  but  also  the 
Grand  Jury  and  the  prosecuting  attorney,  for  carelessness  in 
indictment,  in  preparation  and  presentation  of  the  case. 

As  illustrating  the  length  of  time  persons  are  held  in  the 
jail,  it  is  reported  concerning  cases  held  on  December  1, 
1920,  that  of  85  dismissed  without  being  brought  to  trial, 
only  ten  were  confined  less  than  a  month,  onlv  24  less  than 
two  months;  forty,  or  47%,  were  in  jail  over  100  days  and  23, 
or  27%,  from  150  to  300  days. 

Of  56  brought  to  trial  and  acquitted,  only  two  were  con- 
fined less  than  a  month  and  only  14  less  than  two  months. 

21 


Twenty-two,  or  40  per  cent,  were  detained  over  100  days  and 
6,  or  10.7  per  cent,  from  150  days  to  more  than  a  year. 

Of  404  brought  to  trial  and  convicted,  only  10  were  held 
less  than  a  month  and  only  80  less  than  two  months.  Two- 
hundred  and  three,  over  50  per  cent,  were  confined  over  100 
days ;  122,  or  30  per  cent,  over  150  days ;  79,  or  19.5  per  cent, 
over  200  days;  51,  or  12.6  per  cent,  over  300  days;  and  15 
over  400  days. 

Obviously,  improvement  in  the  administration  of  criminal 
justice  in  Cook  County  would  greatly  reduce  the  size  of 
jail  needed.  In  Detroit,  through  re-organization  and  unifica- 
tion of  the  criminal  courts  alone,  it  was  found  that,  whereas 
on  March  31,  1920,  a  few  days  before  the  new  court  took 
effect,  there  were  173  offenders  in  jail  awaiting  trial,  of  whom 
82,  or  47%  had  been  in  jail  over '25  days,  a  few  150  days; 
on  March  31,  1922,  there  were  83  prisoners  in  jail  awaiting 
trial  and  of  this  number  only  7,  or  9%,  had  been  in  jail  over 
25  days. 


PUNISHMENT  AWAITING  TRIAL 

* 'Forced  confinement  in  jail,  even  under  decent  liv- 
ing conditions,  is  a  bitter  experience.  Under  the 
conditions  that  prevail  in  the  Cook  County  jail  it  is 
cruel,  if  not  unusual  punishment.  If  unnecessarily 
prolonged,  it  becomes  a  form  of  oppression  that  no 
civilized  community  would  long  tolerate  *  *  *  The 
chief  responsibility  for  the  unjust  and  oppressive  con- 
ditions of  delay  in  bringing  jail  cases  to  a  speedy  de- 
termination rests  with  the  Criminal  Court  and  the 
State's  Attorney.** 

— Dr.  George  W.  Kirchwey. 


22 


CHARACTER    OF   THE   JAIL   POPULATION— WHAT 
KIND  OF  A  JAIL  IS  NEEDED  IN  COOK  COUNTY? 

It  is  popularly  assumed  that  all  persons  committed  to 
the  jail  are  vicious  criminals — desperadoes  of  the  Tommy 
O'Connor  type. 

No  such  assumption  can  be  sustained  by  the  facts.  The 
"vicious  criminals,"  unless  accused  of  murder,  can  usually, 
under  the  present  system,  and  promptly  secure  bail — they 
have  both  friends  and  money.  It  is  only  the  forsaken — the 
poor  and  friendless — who  cannot  secure  bail  and  who  must 
therefore  spend  the  time  awaiting  trial  in  jail. 

Of  the  10.642  persons  confined  in  the  Cook  County  jail  in 
1921,  2.214  or  20.8  per  cent  were  boys  under  21  years  of  age. 
Eighty-two  of  these  were  of  Juvenile  Court  nere.  one  being 
only  13.  two  14,  eight  15.  and  the  rest  (71)  16  years  old. 

Young  Men  Started  Wrong 

By  far  the  largest  of  the  age-groups  in  the  jail  is  made  up 
of  older  boys  and  young  men  ranging  in  age  from  21  to  30 
years.  It  is  estimated  that  more  than  half  of  these  are  under 
25.  "Numbering  well  on  toward  half  of  the  entire  jail  popula- 
tion," says  Dr.  Kirchwey,  "they  yet  belong  to  the  class 
which  in  most  of  our  states  is  regarded  as  reformable."  Many 
of  them  are  innocent  and  many  of  them  are  first  offenders. 
"It  is  upon  such  as  these,  as  well  as  upon  the  boys  under  21, 
that  the  blight  of  jail  life  falls  most  disastrously.  If  the  jail 
is  not  a  prison  for  criminals,  it  is  certainly  the  gateway  to 
the  criminal  life.  This  is  the  pJace,  in  this  motley  gathering 
of  the  innocent  and  the  depraved,  where  virtue  is  tarnished 
and  vicious  tendencies  confirmed,  and  it  is  here  that  oppor- 
tunity presents  itself,  for  the  last  time  perhaps,  to  turn  back 
this  tide  of  human  derelicts  into  the  ways  of  decent  and  hon- 
orable living." 

As  to  numbers  of  offenses  committed,  the  statements  of 
inm.ates  as  entered  in  the  jail  records  indicated  that  of  all 
those  confined  in  the  jail  in  1921,  59  per  cent  were  first 
oflFenders  (that  is,  they  had  never  been  arrested  before)  ;  and 
25.3  per  cent  were  second  offenders. 

The  physical  condition  of  inmates  of  the  jail  and  the  super- 
ficial character  of  medical  examination  has  been  discussed. 
There  is  total  lack  of  any  information  as  to  mental  condi- 
tion ;  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  it  is  known  from  studies 

23 


elsewhere  that  a  large  proportion  of  any  criminal  population 
is  made  up  of  mentally  defective  and  diseased  and  that  there 
is  in  many  cases  an  intimate  correlation  between  mental 
defect   or  psychopathic   instability  and   criminality. 

They  Have  a  Stake  in  the  Community 

Mr.  Beeley's  "Personal  Character  Study"  of  381  unselected 
cases  revealed  the  interesting  fact  that  86  per  cent  had  been 
resident  in  Chicago  or  Cook  County  for  at  least  a  year.  Out 
of  101  cases  more  thoroughly  studied,  the  school  record  was 
available  in  70  percent  of  the  cases  ;the  work  record  was  found 
to  be  available  in  92  per  cent  of  ,the  cases ;  70  per  cent  were 
known  to  one  or  more  registering  social  agencies  and  94  per 
cent  were  attached  to  a  family  or  known  to  neighbors,  etc. 
Less  than  6  per  cent  were  "waifs"  or  "strays."  Reference 
to  these  sources  of  information  threw  interesting  side-lights 
upon  the  general  character  of  these  individuals.  The  pro- 
portion of  workers  to  "loafers"  is  not  less  than  81  to  19, 
and  the  ratio  of  steady  workers  to  shifting  (but  still  regular) 
laborers  is  said  to  be  42  to  58.  Only  17  per  cent  are  married, 
which  is  not  surprising,  considering  the  large  proportion  of 
boys  and  very  young  men  in  the  group.  A  considerable 
number,  perhaps  20  per  cent,  are  described  as  "well-disposed 
but  incompetent." 

From  the  facts  discovered  in  this  character  study  the  sur- 
vey raises  the  question  whether  many  of  the  inmates  now 
held  in  the  jail  might  not  be  released  on  bail  if  some  less 
extortionate  system  of  providing  bail  bonds  than  the  present 
system,  through  the  "professional  bondsman,"  could  be 
organized.  It  is  suggested  even  that  some  inmates  could 
safely  be  released  on  their  own  recognizance,  in  charge  of 
their  friends,  after  a  personal  character  study,  conducted 
along  the  same  lines  as  in  this  survey,  had  been  made  and 
the  results  reported  to  the  judge.  In  any  case,  the  personal 
character  study  indicates  most  clearly  that  the  kind  of  jail 
Cook  County  needs  is  not  the  place  of  close  confinement  for 
all  that  may  be  necessary  for  a  few,  but  that  most  of  the 
inmates  could  at  least  be  allowed  larger  freedom  withm  the 
walls  of  the  jail  itself,  with  opportunity  to  maintain  both 
physical  and  mental  health  and  some  measure  of  self-respect, 
with  opportunity  for  work  and  recreation,  even  for  self-im- 
provement and  reform  so  that  they  wo^ild  be  prepared  when 
released  to  go  back  to  their  homes  and  their  neighborhoods 
in  a  better  rather  than  in  a  worse  condition  than  when  they 
entered. 

24 


CONCLUSIONS  AND  RECOMMENDATIONS 

Some  of  the  conclusions  and  recommendations  of  the  sur- 
vey have  already  been  mentioned.  These,  and  others,  may 
be  summarized  as  follows: 

1.  Children  of  Juvenile  Court  age  should  not  be  confined 
in  the  County  Jail.  Ample  provision  is  made  for  them  in 
the  Juvenile  Detention  Hom'c. 

2.  It  is  a  crime  against  youth  to  hold  boys  of  17  to  20 
years  of  age  in  the  County  Jail.  Something  like  2,000  boys 
in  Chicago  undergo  this  experience  every  year.  Boys  now 
in  the  jail  should  be  removed  at  the  earliest  possible  moment 
to  the  old  John  Worthy  School  building  and  this  class  should 
be  provided  for  later  in  a  permanent  Detention  Home  for 
Boys,  kept  entirely  separate  from  the  main  jail.  Four  or 
five  acres  of  ground  (one  block)  at  least  should  be  allowed 
for  this  purpose  and  provision  should  be  made  for  out-door 
recreation  and  work.  The  Boys*  Court  should  be  maintained 
in  connection  with  this  Detention  Home. 

3.  The  detention  of  women  now  held  in  custody  in  five 
of  the  city  police  lock-ups  and  in  the  jail  should  be  provided 
for  in  a  separate  Detention  Home  for  Women.  A  Woman's 
Court,  to  be  re-organized  from  the  present  Morals  Court, 
should  be  established  in  the  same  building. 

The  Central  House  of  Detention 

4.  The  survey  recommends  the  establishment  of  an  insti- 
tution for  detention  of  men  accused  of  crime,  to  be  known 
as  the  Central  House  of  Detention  rather  than  by  the  name 
of  "J^il-"  It  should  be  used  as  a  place  of  detention  only  for 
persons  awaiting  trial  and  never  as  a  place  of  punishment. 
Persons  convicted  of  crime  should,  unless  released  on  proba- 
tion, be  com'mitted  to  the  proper  penal  institutions.  It 
should  make  provision  for  the  proper  classification  and  segre- 
gation of  inmates,  particularly  of  the  younger  men  and  first 
offenders.  It  should  allow  greater  freedom  in  the  handling  of 
the  less  dangerous  inmates,  with  opportunity  for  work  and 
out-door  recreation.  Adequate  medical  and  hospital  facilities 
should  be  furnished  and  there  should  be  provision  also  for 
mental  examination  and  study  of  all  inmates  in  a  well- 
equipped  psychopathic  laboratory.  But  the  very  sick  and 
the  insane  should  be  cared  for  in  outside  hospitals.  The 
Social  Service  Bureau  of  the  County  should  work  in  connec- 
tion with  the  institution  and  should  conduct  a  thorough  and 
personal  study  of  each  inmate,  reporting  its  findings  to  the 
jail  authorities  as  an  aid  in  classification;  and  to  the  States' 

25 


Attorney  and  the  Courts  as  a  guide  in  determining  bail  or 
release  on  personal  recognizance  and  final  disposition  of  the 
case. 

An  Expectant  Attitude 

As  to  the  size  and  type  of  building  to  be  erected,  the  sur- 
vey points  out  that  it  would  manifestly  be  a  mistake  to 
assume  for  the  future  anything  like  the  past  and  present 
ratio  between  the  population  of  the  County  and  the  number 
to  be  kept  in  detention  to  await  judicial  action.  Various 
communities  are  rapidly  reforming  the  processes  of  admin- 
istration of  criminal  justice  and  these  reforms  lead  to  vast 
reductions  in  the  size  of  the  jail  populations.  Such  reforms 
have  already  been  begun  in  Chicago  and  much  greater  pro- 
gress may  confidently  be  expected.  Moreover,  the  survey 
declares,  "we  are  living  in  a  time  of  unprecedented  change  in 
our  conceptions  of  the  treatment  of  crime.  *  *  The  psychologi- 
cal and  psychiatric  study  of  the  delinquents, wliich  is  now  only 
in  its  infancy,  may  be  expected  to  equip  us  with  new  methods 
of  handling  an  increasingly  large  percentage  of  those  who 
now  find  their  way  into  the  jail.  It  would  seem,  therefore, 
that  the  present  is  a  time  for  caution,  for  an  expectant 
attitude  and  for  tentative,  rather  than  for  confident,  final 
action." 

The  survey  therefore  disapproves  the  type  of  jail  build- 
ing advocated  by  some — a  monumental  structure  of  great 
architectural  impressiveness  and  cost,  permanent  and  inflex- 
ible in  character,  and  recommends  the  construction  of  build- 
ings of  a  less  durable  and  pretentious  type.  Instead  of  one 
building  there  should  be  a  group  of  buildings  erected  on 
a  sufficient  area  of  land  to  provide  for  the  needs  of  the  future 
and  to  make  possible  a  proper  classification  and  difiPerentiated 
treatment  of  the  inmates. 

Improve  the  Administration  of  Criminal  Justice 

5.  It  was  not  within  the  scope  of  the  survey,  nor  possible 
with  the  time  and  means  at  hand,  to  make  an  exhaustive  or 
thorough  study  of  the  administration  of  criminal  justice  in 
Cook  County.  But  since  the  administration  of  criminal 
justice  has  so  large  a  bearing  on  the  size  and  type  of  jail 
needed  the  survey  could  not  escape  reference  to  it.  Many 
interesting  and  important  facts  were  discovered  in  the  course 
of  the  survey,  which  are  discussed  in  various  sections  of  the 
report  and  to  which  some  reference  has  been  made  in  this 
summary.  The  survey  does  not  presume,  on  such  limited 
investigation,  to  present  comprehensive  recommendations  for 
improvement    in    the    system,    but    various    suggestions    are 

26 


offered — if  only  as  a    basis    for   further    discussion.     Among 
these  may  be  listed  the  following: — 

a.  A  different  conception  of  the  police  function,  which 
will  rate  the  efficiency  of  the  police,  not  by  the  number  of 
arrests  made  but  by  the  crime  prevented  or  the  actual  num- 
ber of  offenders  brought  to  justice.  "The  machinery  of 
justice  should  be  invoked  only  where  the  public  interest 
clearly  demands  such  action.  Most  cases  of  wrong-doing 
are,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  privately  adusjusted;  *  *  the  police 
should  actively  cooperate  in  promoting  this  adjustment.  *  * 
It  is  also  to  be  desired  that  the  police  should  be  invested  with 
more  of  a  protective  function." 

b.  "The  Chicago  Municipal  Court  is  the  principal  gateway 
to  the  county  jail"  and  there  is  wide  discrepancy  betv/een 
the  number  bound  over  for  trial  and  the  number  actually 
brought  to  trial.  "In  view  of  the  organization  and  simpli- 
fied procedure  of  the  Municipal  Court  it  is  not  unreasonably 
to  assume  that  this  number  could  be  materially  reduced." 

The  State's  Attorney 

c.  "The  office  of  the  States'  Attorney  of  Cook  Count]/  is 
the  most  powerful  agency  of  government  in  the  State  of 
Illinois.  Its  control  of  the  machinery  of  criminal  justice,  in 
the  selection  of  cases  to  be  tried  and  the  determination  of 
the  time  of  trial,  is  practically  unlimited.  **In  all  felony  cases 
he  represents  the  State  in  the  Municipal  Court  and  before 
the  grand  jury,  as  well  as  in  the  Criminal  Court.  *  *  It  is  not 
well  that  an  office  of  such  power  should  exist  in  a  free  com- 
munity without  a  periodical  non-partisan  investigation  into 
its  personnel  and  methods  and  into  the  results  of  its  opera- 
tion." 

d.  "The  grand  jury  is  itself  on  trial,  with  the  tide  of  public 
opinion  running  strongly  against  it.  In  the  larger  cities  it 
is  believed  to  have  become  little  more  than  a  machine  for 
registering  the  will  of  the  States'  Attorney  in  the  matter  of 
finding  indictments." 

e.  The  bail-bond  system  is  gravely  abused.  The  profes- 
sional bondsman  takes  big  risks,  he  therefore  charges  big 
fees.  The  average  amount  that  must  be  paid  for  a  bond  in  a 
felony  case  is  perhaps  between  $250  and  $500.  "Jail  and 
court  attendants,  the  police,  even  the  prisoners'  lawyer  are 
among  those  through  whom  the  bondsman  sometimes  oper- 
ates." This  system  works  to  the  advantage  of  professional 
crooks  and  against  the  poor,  but  more  honest  man.  Some 
system  should  be  organized  to  furnish  bail  at  reasonable  cost 
to  the  latter  and  the  courts  should  be  given  power,  which 
they  do  not  now  have,  to  refuse  bail  to  the  former. 

27 


A  Unified  Court 

f.  Instead  of  the  bungling  and  awkward  system  of  various 
courts  without  a  single  administrative  head,  the  survey- 
commends  the  plan  presented  in  the  proposed  new  Constitu- 
tion for  a  unified  court.  "If  this  should  become  effective, 
the  lost  motion  and  waste  of  energy,  as  well  as  the  conflict 
of  jurisdiction,  which  are  characteristic  of  our  present  system, 
will  be  done  away  with.  *  *  No  other  plan  holds  out  suffi- 
cient hope  of  bringing  about  the  coordinated  effect  which  is 
essential  to  the  efficient  administration  of  justice  in  a  great 
city."  It  is,  however,  within  the  power  of  the  Criminal  Court 
at  present,  because  of  its  flexible  organization,  with  proper 
cooperation  on  the  part  of  the  State's  Attorney,  to  keep 
abreast  of  its  calendar  and  thus  keep  down  the  jail  population. 

g.  As  an  off-set  to  the  criminal  practices  of  the  petty 
"criminal  lawyer,"  who  preys  upon  the  poor,  giving  bad  legal 
advice,  busying  himself  as  a  "fixer"  and  clogging  the  wheels 
of  justice,  the  survey  suggests,  naturally,  increased  activity 
on  the  part  of  the  bar  association  to  disbar  him,  but  recom- 
mends as  more  immediately  important  either  the  provision 
by  the  State  of  competent  legal  defense,  equal  in  power  and 
authority  to  the  power  of  the  State's  Attorney,  or  that  the 
Chicago  Bar  Association  undertake  the  duty  of  providing 
such  defense. 


LEADERSHIP  OF  THE  BAR 
"You  are  lawyers  .  .  .  your  duty  is  a  much  larger 
thing  than  the  mere  advice  of  private  clients.  In 
every  deliberate  struggle  of  law  you  ought  to  be  guides, 
not  too  critical  and  unwilling,  not  too  tenacious  of  the 
familiar  technicalities  in  w^hich  you  have  been  schooled, 
not  too  much  in  love  with  precedents  and  the  easy 
maxims  which  have  saved  you  the  trouble  of  thinking, 
but  ready  to  give  disinterested  and  expert  advice  to 
those  who  purpose  progress  and  the  readjustment  of 
justice. 

"You  are  servants  of  the  public,  of  the  state  itself. 
It  is  your  duty  to  advise  those  who  make  its  laws;  to 
advise  them  in  the  general  interest  with  a  view  to  the 
amelioration  of  every  undesirable  condition  that  the 
law  can  reach,  in  lightening  of  every  burden  law  can 
lift  and  the  righting  of  every  wrong  the  law  can 
rectify." 

— Woodrow  Wilson  to  American  Bar  Association, 
1910,  quoted  in  The  Cleveland  Crime  Survey. 


28 


i^MUiuriiuuiii 

Pamphlet 

Binder 

Gaylord  Bros. 

Makers 

Syracuse,  N.  Y. 

PAT.  JAN  21,  19G8 


52i} 


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